Cottage Under the Sun

Friday, January 20, 2012

Celebrating Celeste. She is my "big" sister. She's actually quite petite. Common Goals. Maybe it's because we're sisters, but we've got the same desire to learn to surf. Celeste is turning 50. She's in great shape and she looks 30, so why not surf? Florida Cottage. Since this is the place to be in March, we expecting a group of women to fly in from all over the USA and shack up here at our shack. Surf Shack. It's going to be a surf camp kind of a weekend with lots of laughs, food, and God only knows what else.Celebrating Celeste. What a great idea.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Did you make a New Year's resolution? I didn't. I couldn't add one more goal! I've really been trying to just continue to move forward with my goals all year this year, so why not end December by de-cluttering? I have a confession. I had 20 years worth of odds and ends crafts spread throughout my house in bins, buckets and cabinets. We dug into the "stuff" and it took all of three days to find a home for what I decided to keep.Before

Thursday, April 21, 2011

I've been spending a lot of time of late with my adult children, especially our Emily who is pregnant with her first child, a boy names Terrance John like his father and grandfather. She definitely has cravings for foods like green olives, and cracked pepper chips but those cravings aren't what I'm having a hard time with, MY craving is driving me nuts! I recently saw Jimmy Fallon on The Martha Stewart Show. He was promoting his new Ben & Jerry's ice cream Late Night Snack. Described as fair trade certified vanilla ice cream, fudge covered potato chip clusters, and salty caramel swirl. But wouldn't you know it. I can't find it anywhere! Cravings continue...

Monday, May 24, 2010

I've been in a crafting and organizing mood lately. I carry a fairly organized purse and often carry a tote bag with some essentials that I can swap out as needed. There are some examples that I was able to "prettify" with a single quilt square of fabric and a little ribbon. Clockwise from the top: baby wipe case, 1/2 size binder from Target), embellished file folders, and coupon organizer.

My next goal is make a biby item organizer bag (before my second grandson is born) and to organize a weekday pocket, weekend pocket, and a travel pocket that I can interchange in the same tote.

I admit that the craft room/ home office/laundry/mud room is out of control. It's not been easy to design a space where I can craft in peace. That may be a good project for the hottest days of the summer when I'm stuck in the cool house.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Mother's Day this year was bittersweet. You see, our son and his fiancee were both out of town and our youngest has just gotten married and left the nest. We are so blessed to have our two children and the their sweet loved ones now part of our family, but it sure was quiet around the house Mother's Day morning. I returned form church to a multitude of texts and had a nice lunch with family including my parents, daughter and new son-in-law. It was a very good day, just not the same as when they were little.

Time flies so fast.

To those of you with little ones I have this advice; love them with everything in you, teach them the way the should go, encourage their childhood dreams, let them make mistakes, pray that they learn from them, and let them go.

About me

I'm in my 40's and feel slightly wiser than I was in my 20's and 30's. I've begun to really enjoy my simple life with Al, the dogs, and birds in our 1300 sq ft house. If I didn't love to have our adult kids and other family staying with us, I think we could make due with about 900 sqft. We love camping, travel, sushi,motorcycle rides, kayaking and anything when we're with our grandsons and our kids. I pray for peace in my family's homes, for our gransons's futures, for my sisters - both by birth and through friendship. My goals are to follow Jesus Christ closely, become debt free, serve others, travel more, spend more time with people I love, and teach our grandsons and encourage them to learn even more.